Truck Jobbers is one of the examples of merchant wholesalers in which they carry products to small business customer locations for their inspection and selection. This type of distributor performs primarily a selling and delivery funtion. They offer quick and freuent delivery which is especially essential for such items as bakery goods, meats and dairy product.
Buzz marketing is using high-profile entertainment or news to get people to talk about your brand. This billboard is catching people's attention. There is a guaranteed effect on millions of consumers who go down that street. A good example of buzz marketing because this billboards obviously haven't gone unnoticed. People will talk about it definitely.
Pricing is one of the four pieces of marketing mix. The other three aspects are product, place, promotion. Pricing is the most important and difficult strategy. It directly affects the revenue of a company. If the company price the product too high, no customers would buy it. If the price is low, company would lose money. One of the key terms I found in the "Price the product" chapter is prestige product. Its definition is "products that have a high price and that appeal to status-conscious consumers." It reminds me of some products like Coach purse, Rolls-Royce Car, Balenciaga, Dolce & Gabbana. People who purchase these products think that they will elevate their status and high price is an indiation of superior quality.
In today's economics, disintermediation is very common and widespread. Disintermediation means to cut the middleman like distributor, wholesaler, agent and broker. Companies now deal with every customer directly for via the Internet. One of the advantage is it dramatically decreases cost of servicing customers. One of the example is Dell, Inc., whih sells many of its systems direct to the customers. Customers can choose the laptops they like, the style, color, memory, etc...It is very convenient and time saving. However, on the other hand, it also means that a great deal of people will lose their jobs. Another examples is direct airline service, in which airline passenges have direct Internet access to airlines with the complete schedules and fares. Some airlines also provide a discount for purchasing direct through the Internet.
Web service is one of the marketing service which is intangible. It is a growing industry and provide big profit. Some big companies like Amazon & Ebay are place where customers can purchase their products online in a faster and convenient way. I am a shopaholic. I like to shop on ebay. It offers unique products and provide great service. Whenever I make a purchase, I am able to keep track of my product. I pay the product using Paypal without human involvement. After I receive the product, the buyers will ask for my feedback and comments on the product. It is a great way to improve the quality of the products and manage defects. In conclusion, I think online service is convenient, fast, time saving.
Popular brand names allow the companies to charge customers double or even triple of the price and make profit. Therefore, there are numerous fake brand names appear in the market with cheaper price. They imitate the brand name with almost similar name and logos. Customers should always be careful and take attentions on its name and quality when they buy the products, Lots of people are buying. It is obvious that they are fake. I found some funny pics of them.
I think Apple is the number 1 innovative company in the world. It has innovate and create game changing innovations such as the iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad and more. These technologies have become important parts of our lives because of their usefulness and convenience. They help make people's lives simpler and create a way to get things done faster. Other brands are incomparable with Apple. In the future, I believe Apple will develop and innovate more technologies for ours. Apple's new innovation: the iPad is a new breakthrough that create a new way for phone users to check emails, flick through photos, and watch movies. Ipad has a is 9.7 inch, LED-backlit IPS display with a remarkably precise Multi-Touch screen. It just weights 1.5 pounds and 0.5 inch thin. It is easy to carry and use anywhere. It also has lots of other functions.
Marketing segmentation is important process in order to expand sale. Nowadays, women are not the only targets that marketing can focus on. Facial cleansers are an example of where a company can expand to different target markets. In my recent visit to Walmart, I saw a facial cleanser for men with brand Nivea. Also, there are a lot of products for men. All of them have pretty packaging and have long descriptions of how the product works. These shows that companies want o expand and have different target markets. Actually, many products today seems to be applicable to both gender. It can be anything from hair gel, facial cleanser, foundation, suncream, etc.
Just in time plays an important in every industry. For example, Walmart is very good at managing their inventory by using Just In Time concept. Instead of having a big inventory siting in the storage, Walmart has made ordering a very small amount of their supplies a day or two before they need it.
My favorite brand is Aeropostale. I bought everything from jacket, jeans, hoodie, fleece, flip flops and etc.. from this store. I like their style and fashion, especially their store envioronment and hot music.
I admit that I have a brand loyalty on Aeropostale. I hardly shop at other stores even they have big sales. Whenever I go to the store, I always come
out a big shopping bag that full of clothes. I can make purchase automatically and don't have to think a lot about their quality and price.
Something I can remeber from the Consumer behevior chapter is when doing marketing research marketer have to apply psychology, sociolog, and anthropology. These are the techniues marketers use in order to understand consumers.
One of the terms in the chapter "Situational Influence on Consumers," was interesting. Stores like Abercrombie and Fitch, and Hollister is always darker and music is playing really loud. Their purpose is maybe to create a better atmosphere and lure more customers. But in fact, I feel the opposite. Whenever I am in the store, I barely see the clothes and the loud music give me a headache!
Marketing research is something that I have never thought about before. In chapter 3 which talks about how firms conduct marketing research. It is quite interesting to me. If a company wants to promote a product, it must go through marketing research. They can survey, phone , face to face interview, online questionnaires or mail questionnaires. Company can also employ third party to market research company to conduct survey on their behalf, like Microsoft. It shows that marketing research plays an important role in every industry. It is a way to forecast future trends before introducing a new product to customer. It also is a way to make of keeping customers while satisfying their new needs.
This week in class we talked about different markets in the term of a matrix with the axes being dominant vs. miss product and high vs. low growth market. Then we also mentioned how companies develop products in order to stay in the market. As this was being discussed in class, it reminds me of Starbuck. Recently I visited the Starbuck store, it introduces a new product development in order to compete with other companies aiming to offer consumers more healthy drink option. The new products are named Skinny Vanilla Latte, Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte, with only 90 calories (tall size) each, and New Tazo Vanilla Rooibos Full Leave Tea with 0 calories. Amazing!
Almost everyone knows what McDonald's is. I love McDonald's. Until recently I found this image, it gives me a wake up call. Even though, McDonald's cheap and yummy but consumers also should aware the food nutrition information. Definitely, health benefit would outweight the cost. To me, it is kind of ironic. I asked, are they trying to drive away their consumers? Who will go to McDonald's if they see this ad?
